Ode to Billy Joe

If a movie is ever based on the life of country singer/songwriter Billy Joe Shaver, see it.

Shaver’s life is filled with everything that you’d want in an Oscar-chasing blockbuster, not to mention that it might star his real-life longtime friend Robert Duvall.

Shaver’s got the hard climb to success story, hit songs, run-ins with the law and even celebrity friends, which could provide some great cameos.

But there would be a rather small yet interesting scene in the film, probably located right before Shaver is standing trial for shooting a man in the face, where he records the theme song for the Adult Swim animated television program “Squidbillies.”

Shaver howls lyrics like “sometimes I wish the sun would just explode” to open the cartoon, which follows the antics of a poor family of Appalachian Mountain-area-dwelling squids.

The show was created by Jim Fortier and Dave Willis. Willis also created the popular television show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.”

“Those guys are all right,” Shaver said of Willis and Fortier. “They’re funny.”

Fortier joked that could be Shaver’s way of saying, “I don’t remember those guys at all.” But Shaver recalls the experience vividly.

Shaver met the show’s creators at the Victory Church in Austin. The “Squidbillies” theme song contains a bit of profane language, and a church doesn’t seem like the ideal place to record that type of song.

“Strange, isn’t it?” Shaver said with a laugh.

The location also seemed strange to the show’s creators.

“We were worried he was a born-again and would be offended by the lyrics,” said Willis, who co-wrote the show’s theme with Fortier.

But the church houses a recording studio he called “wonderful,” which was why it was selected.

The duo said they asked Shaver to perform the theme song because they were looking for a “grizzled old country veteran.”

“He looks dyed in the wool,” Willis said. “He is the real deal. It was cool. It was a thrill to work with him.”

Fortier said he was surprised at how laid-back Shaver was. He said he wouldn’t have been surprised if the 71-year-old singer was impatient and in a hurry.

“He didn’t leave until he gave us what he thought we wanted,” Fortier said.

Though Shaver didn’t write the lyrics himself, he did put his own spin on them.

“They were sent down a certain way, and I might have made a few changes here and there,” he said.

Those changes were something Willis and Fortier were very eager to keep — so much so, the theme song ended up sounding completely different than they intended.

Willis said the studio engineer imported the backing track for the song at a slower rate, making it play back slower than it should have. Shaver sang the song to fit the backing track, and instead of making him sound like a chipmunk, the theme song was left at that speed and sounds the way it does today.

“Guys try to cover it on YouTube, but they have trouble getting it right because it is an unnatural sound,” Fortier said.

There are several versions of the theme song, and Fortier and Willis said they have begun writing different versions for different artists to record.

“I think we will plan a trip to the Vatican City and have the pope do a spoken word theme for us so we can meet him,” Fortier joked.

Fans of “Squidbillies” will have to wait until mid-September for new episodes.

Shaver, on the other hand, will be in town tonight at Courville’s to perform some of his classics as well as new songs, including “Wacko from Waco,” which gives his account of the night he shot a man in the face.

Shaver was acquitted in mid-2009 when a jury agreed he shot Billy Coker in self-defense.

Shaver’s song isn’t the only one to retell those events.

His friend Dale Watson penned a tune appropriately titled “Where do you want it?” because witnesses of the shooting claimed to have heard Shaver say, “Where do you want it?” before shooting Coker.

Shaver said Watson asked for his permission to write the song after he’d already written it.

“He asked if I wanted to hear it, and I said no. He said, ‘Well you got to at least hear the title.’ I said, ‘Naw, I don’t want to.’ He told me the title and I said, ‘Naw, I didn’t say that,’” Shaver said.

Shaver laughed about the title of Watson’s version and then suggested I take a listen to his song on YouTube.

It’s almost a made-for-a-movie soundtrack, and “Wacko from Waco” sounds like a great title.